Singakher
Singakher (also called the Singakhera Hegemony) is a star-state ruled by the Khayan, a race of amphibian extraterrestrials, near to the Shanhe Kurun. Singakher is, curiously, the name of both the Khayan homeworld and their star-state as a whole. Inhabitants: The Khayan race rule and inhabit Singakher, which has only tiny minorities of other species. The Khayan are descended from amphibians on their home world. With green skin, large compound eyes, and webbed limbs, they are actually fairly humanoid, aside from short tails and their seven-fingered hands. The Khayan are a water-loving species who never venture far from the sea, rivers, or lakes, or the massive reservoirs and canals that are common in their cities. They have a high tolerance for salt and a number of common poisons. History: The Khayan's normal development was interrupted at an early stage by an early Amiiri starfaring civilization (known as the Second "Blossom", as they call their civilizational cycles). The Second Blossom made contact with the Khayan and set up a few small bases on Singakher to study and interact with them. This set them on an early path to unification, spaceflight, and power on the galactic stage. Eventually the Amiiri, ever fond of taking slaves, ended up cultivating this world just as they had cultivated so many others and used it as a source for slaves and clone genetic material. The Second Blossom, however, eventually collapsed, leaving the Khayan alone in their little corner of space. Amiiri interaction and technology, however, had altered their development, and Singakher was swiftly unified. To this day, the Khayan calendar begins on the day of the Amiiri first contact, much of which is now lost to legend and the dust of history. Unified, with possession of Amiiri relics and technology, and rapidly advancing on their own, the Khayan swiftly began colonizing Singakher. This period of rapid technological advancement, interestingly, saw the rise of cloning in Khayan society. Clones were usually dull creatures- laborers and soldiers, guided by computers- but they were used to populate the new cities and planets the Khayan colonized throughout their home system of Sian. Often they were culled or shipped to new colonies when "pure" settlers were shipped in. Clone populations and their unnaturally swift unification gave the Khayan government on Singakher great control (far greater than, for example, Amyu had over its colonies) and their long-unified culture also helped knit the furthest-flung colonies together into the rest of the nation. Eventually they discovered interstellar travel, becoming a galactic-class power as they expanded into the surrounding stars. For a time, before the ascent of the Shan, it was Singakher that was the biggest galactic power in the region and the arbiter in Amiiri politics. Singakher also played a role in the struggle of the Six States period of Shan history, with Khayan faster-than-light drives eventually spreading to Shan space and giving Amyu the technology required to bring its enormous resources to bear against the rebellious colonies. The Shan reunification and end of the Six States period, as well as the sudden appearance and expansion of humans, would spell the beginning of the end for Singakher's hegemony over the region, however. Their influence over the regions where the humans were starting to settle was almost nonexistent (due to their focus on the Shan and the Amiiri), and when they did encounter human settlements and states the humans were usually totally uninterested in being proclaimed part of the Singakhera Hegemony. Singakher had a series of wars with the resurgent Shan, who largely expelled them from Amiiri space and their dominions there and turned some Amiiri princes against the Khayan. The Hegemony, however, still struggles on, resisting the Shan (who have clear imperial designs on them) with their still-considerable resources. Despite two (relatively) recent defeats in the Regency Wars, where the Khayan sided with the Golden Regency, they remain a significant, if waning player on the galactic stage, and a major roadblock to Shan expansion. Political Situation: Khayan space abuts both Shan and Amiiri territories, which leads to friction. They are increasingly being driven out of Amiiri space by the Shan, with whom they have extremely poor relations. However, despite their clear wane since the height of their power, the Khayan continue to resist Shan advances.